Regular space

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In topology and related elds of mathematics, a topological space X is called a regular space if every closed subset C
of X and a point p not contained in C admit non-overlapping open neighborhoods.[1] Thus p and C can be separated
by neighborhoods. This condition is known as Axiom T3 . The term "T3 space" usually means a regular Hausdor
space". These conditions are examples of separation axioms.

1 Denitions

U V

x
F

The point x, represented by a dot to the left of the picture, and the closed set F, represented by a closed disk to the right of the picture,
are separated by their neighbourhoods U and V, represented by larger open disks. The dot x has plenty of room to wiggle around
the open disk U, and the closed disk F has plenty of room to wiggle around the open disk V, yet U and V do not touch each other.

A topological space X is a regular space if, given any closed set F and any point x that does not belong to F, there
exists a neighbourhood U of x and a neighbourhood V of F that are disjoint. Concisely put, it must be possible to
separate x and F with disjoint neighborhoods.
A T3 space or regular Hausdor space is a topological space that is both regular and a Hausdor space. (A
Hausdor space or T2 space is a topological space in which any two distinct points are separated by neighbourhoods.)
It turns out that a space is T3 if and only if it is both regular and T0 . (A T0 or Kolmogorov space is a topological
space in which any two distinct points are topologically distinguishable, i.e., for every pair of distinct points, at least
one of them has an open neighborhood not containing the other.) Indeed, if a space is Hausdor then it is T0 , and
each T0 regular space is Hausdor: given two distinct points, at least one of them misses the closure of the other one,
so (by regularity) there exist disjoint neighborhoods separating one point from (the closure of) the other.
Although the denitions presented here for regular and T3 " are not uncommon, there is signicant variation in
the literature: some authors switch the denitions of regular and T3 " as they are used here, or use both terms
interchangeably. In this article, we will use the term regular freely, but we will usually say regular Hausdor,
which is unambiguous, instead of the less precise T3 ". For more on this issue, see History of the separation axioms.

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2 4 ELEMENTARY PROPERTIES

A locally regular space is a topological space where every point has an open neighbourhood that is regular. Every
regular space is locally regular, but the converse is not true. A classical example of a locally regular space that is not
regular is the bug-eyed line.

2 Relationships to other separation axioms

A regular space is necessarily also preregular, i.e., any two topologically distinguishable points can be separated by
neighbourhoods. Since a Hausdor space is the same as a preregular T0 space, a regular space which is also T0 must
be Hausdor (and thus T3 ). In fact, a regular Hausdor space satises the slightly stronger condition T. (However,
such a space need not be completely Hausdor.) Thus, the denition of T3 may cite T0 , T1 , or T instead of T2
(Hausdorness); all are equivalent in the context of regular spaces.
Speaking more theoretically, the conditions of regularity and T3 -ness are related by Kolmogorov quotients. A space
is regular if and only if its Kolmogorov quotient is T3 ; and, as mentioned, a space is T3 if and only if its both regular
and T0 . Thus a regular space encountered in practice can usually be assumed to be T3 , by replacing the space with
its Kolmogorov quotient.
There are many results for topological spaces that hold for both regular and Hausdor spaces. Most of the time, these
results hold for all preregular spaces; they were listed for regular and Hausdor spaces separately because the idea
of preregular spaces came later. On the other hand, those results that are truly about regularity generally don't also
apply to nonregular Hausdor spaces.
There are many situations where another condition of topological spaces (such as normality, pseudonormality, paracompactness,
or local compactness) will imply regularity if some weaker separation axiom, such as preregularity, is satised. Such
conditions often come in two versions: a regular version and a Hausdor version. Although Hausdor spaces aren't
generally regular, a Hausdor space that is also (say) locally compact will be regular, because any Hausdor space is
preregular. Thus from a certain point of view, regularity is not really the issue here, and we could impose a weaker
condition instead to get the same result. However, denitions are usually still phrased in terms of regularity, since
this condition is more well known than any weaker one.
Most topological spaces studied in mathematical analysis are regular; in fact, they are usually completely regular,
which is a stronger condition. Regular spaces should also be contrasted with normal spaces.

3 Examples and nonexamples

A zero-dimensional space with respect to the small inductive dimension has a base consisting of clopen sets. Every
such space is regular.
As described above, any completely regular space is regular, and any T0 space that is not Hausdor (and hence not
preregular) cannot be regular. Most examples of regular and nonregular spaces studied in mathematics may be found
in those two articles. On the other hand, spaces that are regular but not completely regular, or preregular but not
regular, are usually constructed only to provide counterexamples to conjectures, showing the boundaries of possible
theorems. Of course, one can easily nd regular spaces that are not T0 , and thus not Hausdor, such as an indiscrete
space, but these examples provide more insight on the T0 axiom than on regularity. An example of a regular space
that is not completely regular is the Tychono corkscrew.
Most interesting spaces in mathematics that are regular also satisfy some stronger condition. Thus, regular spaces are
usually studied to nd properties and theorems, such as the ones below, that are actually applied to completely regular
spaces, typically in analysis.
There exist Hausdor spaces that are not regular. An example is the set R with the topology generated by sets of the
form U C, where U is an open set in the usual sense, and C is any countable subset of U.

4 Elementary properties
Suppose that X is a regular space. Then, given any point x and neighbourhood G of x, there is a closed neighbourhood
E of x that is a subset of G. In fancier terms, the closed neighbourhoods of x form a local base at x. In fact, this
 3

property characterises regular spaces; if the closed neighbourhoods of each point in a topological space form a local
base at that point, then the space must be regular.
Taking the interiors of these closed neighbourhoods, we see that the regular open sets form a base for the open sets
of the regular space X. This property is actually weaker than regularity; a topological space whose regular open sets
form a base is semiregular.

5 References
[1] Munkres, James R. (2000). Topology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-181629-2.
4 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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